Our Days after Tomorrow
by leviadrache
Summary: a collection of post canon zexal one-shots
1. reputation (tomo)

written for the zexal fanwork marathon. the prompt was "Shark trying to still maintain his bad boy image, but failing miserably because he now hangs out with Durbe who is the nerdiest of nerd students." and i _tried_

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"Have you considered?" Ryoga asks when they're sitting together in the cafeteria. There aren't many other students there besides both of them, since they've got a free period and most of the other people, including their friends, don't, so Ryoga thinks it might be the right time to address this certain thing. He glances at Durbe and puts his mobile into his pocket after making sure that nobody important (aka Yuma) texted him.

"Considered what, Nasch?"

Durbe looks up from the book he has read, obviously not sure what he's talking about. With his glasses on, Durbe looks like a completely different person to him, doesn't look like the former knight and _friend_ he used to be to Nasch, now Ryoga. But the way he says 'Nasch', his voice full of passion and his eyes lightening up, revealing the fire of the warrior Durbe used to be, makes it really hard for Ryoga to remind him that he isn't Nasch any more.

Because the name 'Nasch' meant something to Durbe and to him, while the name 'Ryoga' just sounded hollow and cold in Durbe's voice.

"Have you considered acting less, I don't know, nerdy?"

"Nerdy?" Shutting his book, Durbe gives him one of those puzzled looks. "What does that mean, my friend?"

"Voluntary reading those books about history or whatever, reminding the teachers to give us homework and so on. That's nerdy. And you should also stop showing so many signs of affection towards me when we're at school, or generally in public. People will _talk_."

Durbe gives Ryoga that look, the kind of look that doesn't actually fit into the definition of a pout, because it's Durbe and Durbe never pouts, because he's not a child and would never even think of behaving childish, but then he's also not a real adult, at least not what an adult in the twenty-first century is supposed to be, so it's maybe just half a pout ... or something.

"What's wrong about people talking?"

Ryoga intuitively rolls his eyes, because he knows when it's about those _human_ things, it's always easier to just directly blurt out everything, since his companions won't understand it otherwise. Sometimes, he likes to think Yuma went through the same issues with Astral, but then remembers Astral never went to school, so it was probably way easier with him.

"Unlike you, I've got this thing called reputation – and you're ruining it!"

Which is a bit rude and while being rude to Yuma is okay and being rude to Rio is normal, being rude to Durbe is not something that usually happens, because Durbe is _Durbe_, and being rude to him is simply impossible.

Durbe himself seems to be rather confused by now and, hey, Ryoga's actually rather used to his sister and his friends (aka Yuma) ruining his reputation, isn't he, so he might as well –

Ryoga just simply decides to better not bring this topic up again.


	2. pretending (mizadoru)

Durbe sits at the kitchen table, working on some assignment, while Mizael brushes his hair and it's really early in the morning, too early to be awake, Merag and Gilag would say. Still, both of them are always awake at this time and they know Alit gets up even earlier and by now, he's already jogging around somewhere in the city and exercising and so on, probably hoping to meet Yuma before school.

Both of them don't care much about sports themselves, and while Mizael at least enjoys tennis, even joined the school tennis club, Durbe refuses to do any sport and instead stays at the library while Mizael's trains.

It's not too much fun without Durbe, but Nasch claims all of them should start doing their own things and try some new, more _human _things, although they know Nasch just doesn't want them at home when he takes Yuma there.

"How do I figure out when and at which angle that ball will hit the floor?" Durbe's calm voice breaks through the silence. Mizael puts the hair brudh on the table and leans over to Durbe, looking over his friend's notes. The other humans in their class say Durbe's really smart, but physics is something Mizael is interested in. Durbe mostly doesn't really get it and needs more time to figure out all the equations and those things, so Mizael helps him and explains them for Durbe again after the lesson is over and they sit together on the school's roof top

It doesn't take Durbe long to understand the meaning of each letter ("A for acceleration, t for time, v for velocity really isn't that hard to get.") and how to work with them ("Come on, those equation really aren't that hard to get."), so when Mizael finishes explaining, Durbe smiles, touches Mizael's cheek and his hand feels cold against his face, but Mizael doesn't complain or say anything and just looks at Durbe.

"Well, good to know that this ball would need 0.54 seconds to hit the floor. If we're ever throwing balls out of the window on the twentieth floor of a building, I'll be ready." He doesn't miss the irony in Durbe's voice, but Durbe smiles, then frowns a little as he moves his face closer to Mizael's and tilts his own head a little, as Mizael watches him. "Thanks for your help, Mizael."

Their faces touch and Durbe brushes their lips against each other gently, not really pressing them together, just both of their lips softly touching each other for a second or two, until Durbe pulls away once again.

"What was _that_ for?"

"Oh, just one of these human gestures. I saw some of them doing it at school and Alit said, humans do this to express gratitude towards their close friends."

As soon as Durbe's out of the kitchen, Mizael leans back in his chair, touches his lips and swears.

"Don't even think, a knight like you could pretend he doesn't know what a kiss means."


End file.
